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Imtiaz Ali on 'Rockstar': "It's not my life story, my life is far too boring in comparison"

After the huge success of ‘Jab We Met’ and ‘Love Aaj Kal’, film director Imtiaz Ali is back with his latest offering ‘Rockstar’, which stars Ranbir Kapoor and newcomer Nargis Fakhri.

Spanning over seven years the film revolves around Delhi-boy Janardan (Ranbir) who resents the fact that he has no pain in life. He believes that all of the great musicians have had some sort of tragedy in their lives, and so decides to woo one of the most popular girls on the college campus, Heer Kaul (Nargis), in a bid to get his heart broken.

UrbanAsian was at the press conference held for the film in London on Monday 7th November, where Ranbir, Nargis and Imitiaz were all present.

When questioned if the film was based on his life, Imtiaz replied: “No it’s not my life story, my life is far too boring in comparison.”

However the director said that he got the inspiration of the story from his college days. He added: “A lot of us have seen these wannabe musicians. These guys who play the guitar and want to be like westernised rockstars, and I’ve hung around guys like this during my college days.

“The thought used to disturb me that my life is very ordinary and there is a lack of tragedy in it. Most of the lives of big musicians and artists has some sort of tragedy and I used to think, will I ever make it, because my life is so ordinary?”

Ranbir plays the role of a typical Jatt boy in the film and speaking about the preparation he had to do for the role, Ranbir revealed that both he and Imtiaz went to Delhi to hear the way these Jatt boys would walk and talk and they would also listen to incidents they’d had with their girlfriends. They even went drinking and dancing with them to get an insight into their lives.

With the film being centred around music it was also important for Ranbir to look like a genuine musician. Musical genius AR Rahman has composed the soundtrack for the film and the actor travelled to Rahman’s home in Chennai to learn how to play the guitar. Interestingly Rahman has roped in the internationally acclaimed guitarist Orianthi Panagris, who worked with the likes of Michael Jackson, to work on the film.

Though he didn’t identify with his character initially, Ranbir said: “I didn’t know him at all when I read the script, but through the course of the film once you start playing him everyday something starts seeping in to your real life. We started living as Janardan and Heer and became the characters. It was one of those parts where if you don’t completely surrender to the role it would be dishonest.”

Alongside the rockstar Kapoor in the film, is newly model turned actor Nargis Fakhri, who couldn’t speak a word of Hindi before she started work on the film, and who had never acted in her life. However Imtiaz calls her his biggest lucky break in this film.

For her, the emotional hardship of playing such an intense character was quite difficult as was laying her complete trust in the director to just go with the flow.

However she said: “Before this happened to me I was at a point where I didn’t like modelling anymore and it felt so empty and shallow. I’m an artist at heart – I paint, I sketch, I sculpt and as a model you are just the blank canvas and not the artist. Now that I’ve seen what I’ve created I think it was really worth it!”